Phone Firms Get Lift
On TV Push in Texas

a Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter

Updated Sept. 8, 2005 12:01 a.m. ET

Telephone companies planning to enter the television business scored their biggest political victory yet as Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed legislation streamlining the government approval process they have to follow to offer service in that state.

Phone giants SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. said the bill, which was fiercely opposed by cable companies, would enable them to accelerate their plans to roll out...